Summary
Background and objectives: With growing use of IT by healthcare professionals and
patients, the opportunity for any unintended effects of technology to disrupt care
health processes and outcomes is intensified. The objectives of this position paper
by the IMIA Working Group (WG) on Technology Assessment and Quality Development are
to highlight how our ongoing initiatives to enhance evaluation are also addressing
the unintended consequences of health IT.
Methods: Review of WG initiatives Results: We argue that an evidence-based approach
underpinned by rigorous evaluation is fundamental to the safe and effective use of
IT, and for detecting and addressing its unintended consequences in a timely manner.
We provide an overview of our ongoing initiatives to strengthen study design, execution
and reporting by using evaluation frameworks and guidelines which can enable better
characterization and monitoring of unintended consequences, including the Good Evaluation
Practice Guideline in Health Informatics (GEP-HI) and the Statement on Reporting of
Evaluation Studies in Health Informatics (STARE-HI). Indicators to benchmark the adoption
and impact of IT can similarly be used to monitor unintended effects on healthcare
structures, processes and outcome. We have also developed EvalDB, a web-based database
of evaluation studies to promulgate evidence about unintended effects and are developing
the content for courses to improve training in health IT evaluation.
Conclusion: Evaluation is an essential ingredient for the effective use of IT to improve
healthcare quality and patient safety. WG resources and skills development initiatives
can facilitate a pro-active and evidence-based approach to detecting and addressing
the unintended effects of health IT.
Keywords
Medical informatics - evaluation studies - evidence-based medicine - information systems
- patient safety
